1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to fletching for an arrow and, more particularly, to fletching for an arrow which is lighter than conventional fletching, ensures in-flight stability and linear travel of the arrow, and imparts a pitch to a wing part in advance to allow the fletching to be easily mounted to a shaft.
2. Description of the Related Art
An arrow is a projectile which straddles the string of a bow or crossbow to be shot therefrom, and includes a shaft, a pile, fletching and a nock. The pile is provided on the front end of the shaft, and the nock is provided on the rear end of the shaft to straddle the string of the bow or crossbow. Generally, the arrow which has been shot from the string of the bow or crossbow flies to a target while describing a parabola. At this time, the arrow flies while rolling and pitching with respect to the center of gravity of the arrow. That is, the arrow does not fly straight towards a target but flies unsteadily as if it were a swimming fish. This is referred to as the arrow paradox. The fletching of the arrow functions to overcome the unsteady motion, thus allowing the arrow to fly straight using air resistance. Further, the arrow flies while being rotated by air resistance acting on the fletching of the arrow. The directionality of the rotating arrow is much more stable than that of an arrow which does not rotate. That is, a small pitch is imparted to the fletching mounted to the shaft to rotate the arrow, thus ensuring the stable movement of the arrow. Such an effect is called a gyro effect.
FIG. 10 is a side view illustrating conventional fletching for an arrow. The conventional fletching 10 includes a wing part 11 having a plate shape, and an adhesive part 12 which is provided on the lower end of the wing part and used to attach the fletching 10 to a shaft.
FIG. 11 is a plan view illustrating part of the arrow, in which the conventional fletching is mounted to the shaft. As shown in the drawing, the conventional fletching 10 is attached to the outer circumference of a shaft 20. Generally, two to four feathers constituting the fletching 10 are attached to the outer circumference of the shaft to be spaced apart from each other at regular intervals in the circumferential direction thereof. Here, in order to use the gyro effect of the arrow, a predetermined pitch is imparted to the fletching 10, thus allowing the arrow to rotate while in flight. That is, when the fletching 10 is attached to the shaft 20, as shown in the drawing, the adhesive part 12 is not attached straight along the central axis of the shaft 20 in a longitudinal direction thereof, but is twisted and attached such that the adhesive part 12 deviates slightly from the central axis. Through such an attaching method, the side of the wing part 11 of the fletching 10 is slightly curved, thus serving as a pinwheel that allows the arrow to rotate when the arrow is in flight. However, the conventional fletching is problematic in that a worker or user must manually impart a pitch to the fletching 10, so that it takes a long time and is very difficult to impart the pitch. In other words, since the same amount of pitch is imparted to two to four feathers mounted to the shaft 20, it is difficult to precisely attach each feather to the shaft 20 in a constant pitch.
Further, recently, as the weight of the shaft shows a tendency towards reduction, light fletching is required, and besides, the development and supply of fletching for an arrow which is capable of maintaining air resistance and rotary force acting on the fletching to a proper level are needed.